Recently, a man named Morgan Reynolds, former chief economist at the Bush Labor Department, and now an instructor at Texas A & M, claimed he has proof that the World Trade Center was laid low by a "controlled demolition" and not by hijacked airplanes. Another theory advanced the view that the Bush administration knowingly grounded all military aircraft in order to give the al-Qaida teams a clear shot. Additionally, there was the Michael Moore assertion that Saudis were flown out of the country without proper "vetting" in the aftermath of 9/11. One could go on and on with these "Black Helicopter" scenarios if one's extreme partisan views and Bush obsession were to cloud his or her good judgment.

And now we have the infamous Downing Street Memos. Oh, how the Bush bashing crowd would love to find their smoking gun in these notes of meetings between U.S. and British intelligence officers in the summer of 2002. They latch onto a line that says "the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy", loudly proclaiming, "Gotcha"! The fact that a low-level note taker used the term, "fixed" grabs the partisans' attention and provides evidence for their preconceived assertions. Apparently on the word of a British clerk, we have an administration that can not only "fix" findings, but also facts. The fact of the matter is that the British employ the word "fix" in a slightly different way - a better term might have been "organized". Facts and intelligence were being "organized" around the congruence of WMD and links to terrorism; quite a difference.

I have scoured these memos, and for the life of me cannot find any mention of the "Project for the New American Century", and control of Middle East oil; therefore I don't know how they bear witness to that cause.

These memos do in fact put to rest the lie that British and American policymakers lied about the existence of WMD. Clearly, the memos relate both countries believed the weapons existed; therefore there would have been no need to fabricate.

Even though the 9/11 Commission Report, the Senate Intelligence Committee Report, and others have all come to the same conclusion; there is no evidence of fabrication of intelligence, or pressuring of any intelligence agents to shape their findings to fit the Administration's views, partisans continue their drivel anyway. Why let facts you don't agree with get in the way of your preconceived views? And, oh by the way, I mustn't forget to include the disclaimer, "die-hard Bush supporters will discount the memos"; thus lending credence to my arguments.

The complaint that the main stream media have not covered this smoking gun story is nonsense. The New York Times, Washington Post, LA Times, etc., have all covered the story. The problem is that there is nothing new in these memos, and therefore there are more pressing stories to deal with, like fighting and winning the War on Terror, a war we must win. Michael Kinsley, opinion editor of the liberal LA Times, hardly a fan of George W. Bush, says those partisans looking for the smoking gun need to look elsewhere, it's not in the Downing Street Memos.